Note The term Cisco ATA is used throughout this manual to refer to both the Cisco ATA 186 and the Cisco ATA 188, unless differences between the Cisco ATA 186 and Cisco ATA 188 are explicitly stated.

General Troubleshooting Tips

The suggestions in this section are general troubleshooting tips.

•Make sure that the DHCP server is operating correctly. Note that the function button blinks slowly when the Cisco ATA attempts to acquire the DHCP configuration.

•If the green activity LED is not flashing after you connect the Ethernet cable, make sure that both the power cord and the Ethernet connection are secure.

•If there is no dial tone, make sure that the telephone line cord from the telephone is plugged into the appropriate port on the Cisco ATA. Make sure that your Cisco ATA is properly registered on your Call Control system. Test another phone; if this phone does not work either, there may be a problem with the current configuration or with the Cisco ATA.

•A busy tone indicates that the party you called is not available. Try your call again later. A fast-busy tone indicates that you dialed an invalid number.

•After power up, if the function button continues to blink slowly, the Cisco ATA cannot locate the DHCP server. Check the Ethernet connection and the availability of the DHCP server.

•The DHCP server should show an incoming request from the MAC address listed on the product label or given by the voice prompt.

Symptoms and Actions

Symptom Parameters with values set by using the web server interface or voice configuration menu revert to their original settings.

Possible Cause You are using TFTP for configuration (UseTftp parameter is set to 1). The Cisco ATA has a cached version of its configuration file stored in its flash memory; this is what displayed or played through the web server interface or voice configuration menu. If UseTftp is set to 1, then the cached value of its configuration file is synchronized with its configuration file located at the TFTP server.

Recommended Action If you are using TFTP for configuration, do not use the web server interface or voice configuration menu to modify the value of the Cisco ATA configuration file. Use the web server interface or voice configuration menu only to initially configure the Cisco ATA to use TFTP for configuration.

Symptom Unable to access the web configuration page.

Possible Cause Software versions earlier than 2.0 require the web configuration page to be enabled using option 80# on the voice configuration menu.

Recommended Action Upgrade the software.

Symptom The Cisco ATA does not seem to be configured using the TFTP server.

Possible Cause TFTP server address is not properly set.

Recommended Action Ensure that the TftpURL is correctly set to the URL or IP address of the TFTP server that is hosting the configuration file for the Cisco ATA. If you are using DHCP to supply the TFTP server IP address, make sure that the TftpURL is set to 0. Also, unless the TftpURL is an IP address, be sure that the DNS1IP and DNS2IP values are properly set to resolve the TftpURL supplied by DHCP.

Symptom Two records of a Cisco ATA registration—one CiscoATA 186 record and one Cisco 7960 record—are shown on the Cisco CallManager.

Possible Cause Backward compatibility requirements cause a Cisco ATA to attempt to register as both a Cisco ATA 186 and a Cisco 7960 device type.

Recommended Action Upgrade the Cisco ATA signaling image to a version number of 2.15 or later.

Symptom Cannot place call.

Possible Cause Equipment failure on the network.

Recommended Action Replace defective network equipment.

Possible Cause Recipient has not registered the IP phone.

Recommended Action Register the IP phone.

Possible Cause Ethernet cable is not connected.

Recommended Action Make sure that all cables are connected.

Installation and Upgrade Issues

Symptom The red LED is flashing slowly on the function button.

Possible Cause The Cisco ATA is trying to obtain the DHCP address or the software image is being upgraded.

Possible Cause The Ethernet cable is unplugged.

Recommended Action Plug in the Ethernet cable.

Symptom Voice prompt returns Upgrade not available message. This can only occur if you are using the executable-file upgrade method.

Possible Cause You are attempting to upgrade to the existing version.

Recommended Action You do not need to upgrade.

Symptom After you upgrade the Cisco ATA to a new signaling image, you receive an incorrect "Not Registered" status from the Cisco CallManager.

Possible Cause The Cisco CallManager is unable to properly process the registration change after the Cisco ATA upgrades its image from a version prior to the ata186-v2-15-ms-020911b image.

Step 5 From the Servers list, choose the applicable Cisco CallManager. Select only the Cisco CallManager from the list.

Step 6 Click the Restart button if available. If this button is not available, click Stop then click Start.

Capturing Debugging Information

The MS-DOS Windows-based debugging program tool, preserv.exe, is included in every software upgrade package. The tool is also available from Cisco TAC. The prserv program is used in conjunction with the NPrintf configuration parameter (see the "NPrintf" section on page 5-37). This file serves as an upgrade server that captures debug information sent by the Cisco ATA software to your PC's IP address and port number. This debug file (prserv.exe) compiles the information from the Cisco ATA into a readable log file. To capture this NPrintf information, you must know the IP address of the PC using the prserv program, illustrated as follows:

IP address.port

where IP address is the IP address of your PC, and port is 9001. If another process on your PC already uses port 9001, you may use some other value (legal values are from 1024 to 65535). If no port value is entered, the default value is 9001.

To enter the IP address and port number, use voice menu option 81#. You must enter the IP address and port number in alphanumeric format, which requires entering the * key after every character entered. To enter the "." character, you must enter the sequence 1 1#.

For example, for a computer with the IP address 172.28.78.90 and port number 9001 (172.28.78.90.9001), you would enter the following on your telephone handset:

1* 7* 2* 1 1* 2* 8* 1 1* 7* 8* 1 1* 9* 0* 1 1* 9* 0* 0* 1* *

To operate the debug capture program prserv.exe, place the prserv program in a folder on your PC; then at the DOS prompt of the folder where you have placed it, enter:

C:> prserv [-t] port.log

where port is the port number you have selected, and -t, which is optional, means that a time stamp will be included with each message in the form yy:mm:dd:hh (two-digit years, two-digit months, two-digit days, two-digit hours). If you do not enter port.log, debug information still appears on your screen, but it is not saved to a log file.

After you finish capturing debug information, you can stop the log program by entering Ctrl-C at the DOS prompt. The log file created is namedport.log. If you restart the process without changing the name of the log file, any new debug information is appended to the end of the original file.

Caution For security reasons, Cisco recommends that you do not use the web interface over the public network. Disable the web interface, using the UIPassword parameter, before the Cisco ATA is moved from the service provider site.

Using System Diagnostics

The Cisco ATA uses functionality of the syslog protocol for system diagnostics. For detailed information on syslog, see RFC-3164.

Note Because the Cisco ATA does not have an internal clock, syslog messages provide the time offset from the most recent Cisco ATA reset. The system administrator should make sure that the syslog relay or syslog server adds the local timestamps upon receiving syslog messages.

Message Syntax

<Priority>Time_Offset ATA_IP [tag] : [ch]Message

Syntax Definitions

•Priority means the facility and severity values for a specific syslog message.

Priority = (facility value) * 8 + (severity value). Facility and severity definitions and values are supplied in RFC-3164; these values can be calculated if you know the priority value.

•Time_offset means the time elapsed since the most recent Cisco ATA reset.

If the time offset is less than 24 hours, this value is shown as:

hh:mm:ss

If the time offset is more than 24 hours, this value is shown as:

dd hh:mm:ss

where the first d is the number of days elapsed since the most recent reset, and the second d is the letter
d.

•ATA_IP means the IP address of ATA.

•tag means the tag number of the syslog message. Each tag number corresponds to a particular type of message, such as an ARP message. You can turn on tracing for each type of message you want captured by configuring the Cisco ATA parameter syslogCtrl. For more information about the syslogCtrl parameter and for a complete listing of tag numbers and their corresponding message types, see the "SyslogCtrl" section on page 5-39.

Syslog information is sent to the syslog server that you configure by means of the Cisco ATA syslogIP parameter. For more information, see the "SyslogIP" section on page 5-38.

•ch means the active line of the Cisco ATA.

System-level messages do not contain a ch field.

•Message means the syslog message. (See RFC-3164 for message formats and how to interpret the meaning of each syslog message.)

The following examples show some of the different types of messages that syslog reports.

•Priority=182, which means that the facility value is 22 (local use 6) and the severity value is 6 (informational messages). You can derive this information from RFC-3164.

•The time offset of the first message is one minute and 58 seconds.

•The tag value is 16, which corresponds to RTP statistics messages. This is derived from Table 5-7 on page 5-39.

•The ch (active line of the Cisco ATA) is line 0, which is the Phone 1 port of the Cisco ATA.

•The transmission statistics include the duration, packet count and byte count. The receiving statistics include the duration, packet count, byte count, last packet count, lost packet count and average jitter.

Local Tone Playout Reporting

Local tones are tones that the Cisco ATA plays to its FXS port. Each of these tones corresponds to an identifier, and these tone type identifiers are placed into the prserv debug log. These identifiers supply information that administrators can use to help analyze call flows for debugging purposes.

Local tones are different from other tones because local tones are not carried within the inband audio. Instead, the Cisco ATA is prompted by a network event to play the tone, and the Cisco ATA generates the tone for the exclusive purpose of playing it to the attached telephone handset. For example, during a call between the Cisco ATA and a far-end phone, the far-end user might press a digit on the dial pad, thus sending an AVT Named Signaling Event to the Cisco ATA. This event prompts the Cisco ATA to generate a DTMF tone and to play the tone locally to the Cisco ATA phone.

Table 8-1 lists the tone type identifier and its description for local tone reporting.

Table 8-1 Tone Type Identifiers

Tone Type ID

Description

0

Dial tone

1

Reorder tone

2

Ringback tone

3

Call-waiting tone

4

Warning tone

5

Special information tone (SIT)

6

Secondary dial tone

7

DTMF digit 0

8

DTMF digit 1

9

DTMF digit 2

10

DTMF digit 3

11

DTMF digit 4

12

DTMF digit 5

13

DTMF digit 6

14

DTMF digit 7

15

DTMF digit 8

16

DTMF digit 9

17

DTMF digit A

18

DTMF digit B

19

DTMF digit C

20

DTMF digit D

21

DTMF digit *

22

#

23

CPE alerting tone (CAS)

24

Prompt tone/Conference warning tone

25

Beep tone

Obtaining Network Status Prior to Getting IP Connectivity

Using voice configuration menu code 3123#, you can obtain basic network status to use for diagnostic purposes. After you enter this code, the Cisco ATA announces a message in the following format:

e123.D.0xX

where:

•D is the VLAN ID (this is a non-zero value if the Cisco ATA has entered a VLAN)

•0xX is a bitmap value in hexadecimal format. The definition of each bit is shown in Table 8-2.

Table 8-2 Voice Configuration Menu Network Status Bitmap

Bit Number

Description

0

Cisco ATA sent CDP request

1

VLAN ID acquired via CDP

2

Cisco ATA sent DHCP request

3

DHCP server offered IP address

4

Cisco ATA obtained IP address from DHCP server

5

Cisco ATA web server is ready

Example

If the hexadecimal value provided by the voice configuration menu is 0x1d, the network status of the Cisco ATA is shown in Table 8-3.

DHCP Status HTML Page

You can use the following command to check the status DHCP-related information:

http://ipaddress/stats/

where ipaddress is the IP address of the Cisco ATA.

The information you receive includes the following:

•Elapsed time since most recent renewal of Cisco ATA IP address.

•Elapsed time since most recent successful Cisco ATA registration.

•IP address of the proxy to which the Cisco ATA is registered.

Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) Statistics Reporting

To monitor the quality of service for the media stream, you can access RTP packet statistics of the two voice ports and their channels by opening the following page on the Cisco ATA Web server:

<Cisco ATA IP address>/rtps

The following RTP packet statistics are reported:

•rxDuration—the number of seconds since the beginning of reception

•rxPktCnt—the total number of RTP packets received

•rxOctet—the total number of RTP payload octets received (not including RTP header)

•latePktCnt—the total number of late RTP packets received

•totalLostPktCnt—the total number of lost RTP packets received (not including late RTP packets)

•avgJitter—an estimate of statistical variance of the RTP packet inter-arrival time, measured in timestamp unit. (Calculation is based on the formula in RFC1889.)

•txDuration—the number of seconds since the beginning of transmission

•txPktCnt—the total number of RTP packets transmitted

•txOctet—the total number of RTP payload octets transmitted

Using the refresh feature on the RTP Statistics page, you can obtain updated, real-time RTP statistics during a call.

Resetting Cisco ATA counters

To reset the Cisco ATA counters, do the following:

•Click the [Refresh] link to refresh the current counter values.

•Click the [Line 0] link to reset line 0 counter values.

•Click the [Line 1] link to reset line 1 counter values.

Note Inactive lines will be indicated as such.

The nptcap Tool

The nptcap tool can help you to identify network problems that can degrade the quality of conversations over the Cisco ATA. If you have an account on CCO, you can download the nptcap_<version>.zip file from this URL:

The nptcap_<version>.zip file contains the nptcap tool and a Readme file that describes the tool in detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How can I recover the box if I forgot the password?

A. There are two important passwords. One is the UIPassword, which protects access to the Cisco ATA Web Server interface; the other is the EncryptKey, which protects access to the TFTP configuration file. If you forget the value for the UIPassword but still have access to TFTP-stored configuration file, you can modify the UIPassword via TFTP. However, if you are not configuring the Cisco ATA via TFTP, or if you forget both passwords, the only way you can recover the box is to have physical access to the box and do a factory reset on the box via the box voice configuration menu interface (Access Code: FACTRESET#).

Q. What is the maximum distance from which I can drive an analog device with a Cisco ATA?

Cisco ATA, however, is not designed for long-distance usage. The simple test is to determine if the phone or phones that are connected to the Cisco ATA work properly in their environment.

Pay attention to the following questions:

1. Can the Cisco ATA detect on/off hook from the analog phone?

2. Can the Cisco ATA detect the DTMF signal?

3. Can you dial the remote side?

4. Can the Cisco ATA ring the phone?

5. Is voice quality satisfactory?

If you answer no to any of the above questions, you may have a loop impedance greater than 400 ohm. In this case, perform the following procedure.

Procedure

Step 1 Increase the wire gauge to reduce the impedance until the Cisco ATA can detect on/off hook and DTMF signal.

Step 2 If the Cisco ATA cannot ring the phone, find a phone that can ring at a lower ringing voltage. Also, try to use only one phone instead of multiple phones in parallel.

Q. Does the Cisco ATA support network address translation (NAT) when it is loaded with an SCCP image?

A. No, NAT is not supported by the Cisco ATA with the SCCP image.

Q. Can I change the RTP frame size of voice codecs for the Cisco ATA when using with SCCP image?

A. Yes. The RTP frame size is controlled by the Cisco CallManager when the Cisco ATA uses the SCCP image. To change the RTP frame size for a voice codec, follows the steps below:

Procedure

Step 1 Open your web browser

Step 2 Access the CallManager administration page:

http://<IP address>/ccmadmin

Step 3 From the Service menu, select Service Parameters.

Step 4 From the Server drop-down list, select the Cisco CallManager for the Cisco ATA.

Step 5 From the Service drop-down list, select Cisco CallManager.

Step 6 On the Service Parameters Configuration screen, locate the category for the Preferred G711/G723/G729 Millisecond PacketSize menu. From the corresponding drop-down list, select the RTP packet size for the G.711/G.723/G.729 voice codec.

Q. Can I enable/disable silence suppression for G.711/G.723/G.729 for the Cisco ATA when using the SCCP image?

Step 4 From the Server drop-down list, select the Cisco CallManager for the Cisco ATA.

Step 5 From the Service drop-down list, select CiscoCallManager.

Step 6 On the Service Parameters Configuration screen, locate the category for System Wide Silence Suppression. From the corresponding drop-down list, select True to enable silence suppression or select False to disable silence suppression.

Q. Does the Cisco ATA support an overhead paging system, and, if so, does the Cisco ATA support power denial?

A. The Cisco ATA supports an overhead paging system only if that system does not require power denial (battery removal) when a call is disconnected. However, the Cisco ATA can be configured to reverse the voltage polarity when a call is connected or disconnected. For more information, see the "Polarity" section on page 5-19.

Contacting TAC

Qualified customers who need to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) must provide the following information:

•Product codes.

•Software version number—To identify the software revision number, use the configuration menu number 123.

•Hardware version number—To identify the hardware revision number, use the serial number and MAC address found on the label on the bottom of the Cisco ATA. The MAC address can also be obtained using voice menu option 24.